Welcome to Autumn, Team Pepita!
I’m over the moon to send you this month’s report! Let’s start with the most fabulous, incredible, exciting news: Pepita has moved to the lobby!! At Tabby’s Place, this is considered a promotion and an honor. Pepita was observed in Suite A as a little depressed lately, as she loves the interaction with volunteers and visitors and hadn’t been getting quite enough, in her humble opinion. She was also spending a lot less time in her beloved solarium. The staff discussed how to get Pepita’s mojo (bubbly personality) back on track and decided to move her to the lobby, where the daily hustle and bustle of this central thoroughfare in the sanctuary brings forth a multitude of volunteers and staff on a regular basis. There’s no better environment for rich interaction with many humans! And no one can resist spending time with Pepita, showering her with love and attention.
In the normal course of things, when a cat moves from one suite to another location in the building, they are kept crated for several days so that the other cats can get used to the new resident’s smells and vice versa. I visited with Pepita a few days into her crating (which by the way, was a very comfy soft-sided crate with soft blankets). I unzipped the top of the crate to give her some love and within a minute of that, she jumped up onto the roof of the next crate over, wanting to get out and explore! It’s wasn’t time for that yet, so back in she went. The next time I visited she was through her period of scent adjustment and out and about in the lobby. You can see from the pictures I’ve included that she was exploring big time! She spent time on my lap, telling me through her purrs, head butts, and rubs just how happy she was. She was her old bubbly self and clearly approving of the move. The lobby is huge compared to the suites and there are chairs on which to nap, a reception desk to explore, and a view of the outside world through the glass front door.
The lobby also houses an old buddy of Pepita’s from Suite A: Rose. Rose was moved to the lobby back when she had a serious medical issue, and she loves the lobby, too. Of course, Pepita will need to explore new friendships with the cats of the lobby, several of whom have quite strong personalities. I’m speaking, of course, of handsome and fluffy Anka, who doesn’t care for other cats and has his own private penned-in area in the lobby, and Olive, who rules the lobby as visitor greeter and makes it known to other cats that she is in charge. But there are many sweet and loving cats in the lobby, too, including paraplegics and cats with incontinence issues like Pepita. I’m delighted that your sweet girl has the chance to reside in this new environment. It just reminds us that Tabby’s Place treats each and every cat as an individual, pays attention to what is happening with them, and not only attends to their medical needs but also their social needs.
Speaking of medical care, Pepita developed another urinary tract infection and started on antibiotics. While this treatment seemed to make her more comfortable, the infection did not resolve and we had to switch to a different antibiotic medication. Often it just takes switching up to another antibiotic to get the infection to go away. Paws crossed that this one does the trick!
In other fantastic news, Tabby’s Place Linda Fund Matching Challenge, which I mentioned in my last update, hit its goal (a truly stretch goal) this week and will provide the needed funds to continue the medical care of the cats. It never ceases to amaze me how donors like you give loyally to support these very special felines, whether as monthly sponsors for specific cats or as contributors to the various fundraising events we hold, such as the Linda Fund. We hold our breath a bit during these campaigns, not sure exactly how it will go. But time and again, we reap the benefits of incredibly kind hearts who we consider all part of our Tabby’s Place family.
The good news just keeps coming, with the very visible construction of Quinn’s Corner, as you can see from the picture! This dream of helping the most vulnerable of cats—neonatal kittens and cats testing positive for feline leukemia virus (FeLV+)— becomes more real each day. As the construction momentum builds, so too does all the planning by the Tabby’s Place staff, to ensure there are enough volunteers and staff to provide the care, new protocols for handling these new cat populations, and raising the remaining funds needed to support the final phases of construction and the early stages of operation.
Well, this has been an update chock-full of news, so I will leave it at that, but with one final thank you for all you do for Pepita and Tabby’s Place. Your generous heart is inspiring to us all.
Have a wonderful October and Happy Halloween!
Your correspondent,
Sheila